I have been thinking a lot lately about why Trump is so popular in this country, for understanding his appeal is critical to understanding how to react to his actions.
I don’t want to list a litany of his personal and political faults; they are well known and well documented. And yet, 70 million Americans voted for him in the past election.
Confronting Trump supporters on their apparent hypocrisy, whether related to politics, faith or historical perspective has, and will continue to be useless.
Why?
Let’s think about iconic Hollywood Westerns. Here is one generic plot: A mild peace-loving family who only want to continue their life on their farm is confronted by a rich, powerful figure who wants to take over their farm. Our empathic characters are powerless to stop this dominant character until they meet and/or hire their own gunslinger. This hero, with a checkered past and moral conflicts, sides with the “good” citizens and defeats the antagonist, generally in a bloody battle. The gunslinger has become the white knight, and he may be integrated into the good citizen groups, but often will simply ride off into the sunset.
Now, let’s look at a wide swath of families in this country.
They have seen their Uncle Bob’s hardware store closed because of the new Home Depot. They have seen Cousin Al’s bookstore closed because of Amazon. Aunt Millie’s diner has closed and has been replaced by Starbuck’s. And so on and so on. The businesses that used to support Uncle Bob, Cousin Al and Aunt Millie and their families in a comfortable middle-class life have now been closed and Bob, Al and Millie along with all of their family of employees are now working for minimum wage or slightly above at the corporate replacements.
John used to work at the local factory, but the corporate managers chose to close the factory and move it overseas. Now, John’s wages have dropped to a fraction of what he used to make; his pension has been lost and he has to buy his own medical insurance.
Robert’s Dad used to live a good middle class life. He bought a new car each year. The family went on a vacation each summer. The kids went to college. His Mom raised the kids, provided a home and supported all of the family members. Now, Robert’s wife MUST work just to allow the family to make the mortgage, car, health and utility payments. He has no idea how he will pay for college for his two kids.
The little that Bob, Al, Millie, John and Robert have today is under attack from multiple elements in the country. They fear that other people, who have even less than them will work for lower wages and take away their current jobs. They fear that incoming immigrants, minorities and other ill-defined outsiders will be replacing them in their jobs. They fear that this threat to their current modest life is supported by the Federal Government. They fear that the Government is more interested in helping those outsiders than helping them.
The bottom line: They fear that the little they have now is under assault and is being taken away from them by rich, powerful elitists.
The same changes are occurring in their faith institutions. Their churches used to be the center of their social life. They would see their neighbors every Sunday in the pews and celebrate together at social functions sponsored by the Church.
Now, the Churches are increasingly empty on Sunday. There are fewer and fewer social events at the Church, their children no longer look to the Church for making friends, the sermons from the pulpit are interesting, but no longer echo in conversations during the week.
Outsiders have moved into their community, and if not their own, they see the outsiders in nearby communities. These outsiders go to their own churches, places that are alien to them and don’t teach the same morality and religious history as they do. A lot of these outsiders do not even go to church. And the Federal Government? They constantly support the rights of these outsiders.
In the past, the town had just a few parades each year, maybe one for the war veterans and one on July 4th to celebrate patriotism. Now there are parades of angry people flaunting their unfamiliar lifestyles, their political views and their objections to policies and practices that have been observed in the town for decades or centuries.
What can these people do? The Federal Government seems to be deaf to their voices, blind to their needs and ignorant of their existence.
In our literary tradition, these innocent peace-loving families need to hire their own gunslinger to fight against the powers that are trying to take over their lives and living. It doesn’t matter if the gunslinger is morally corrupt; it doesn’t matter if the gunslinger is violent; it doesn’t matter if the gunslinger pads his own pocket while fighting for the good citizens. The only thing that matters is that he provides some force on THEIR side to counter the forces on the other side.
I believe that this is the appeal of Mr. Trump. Those that have little and who are afraid that the little that they do have is under threat to be taken away, and that in the process of taking away their meager lives, the basic underpinning of the country is also being destroyed. It thus becomes their patriotic duty to throw their support behind the individual who will fight for them, no matter how dirty, how violent, how immoral he acts, because without that support, the country cannot survive.